Strategic Alliance Agreement with Orbitz has ended.
Helloworld has just announced the termination of its long-term agreement with Orbitz Worldwide, with the current helloworld.com.au website to transition to a new platform on 31 August 2016.
The company said the move follows discussions with Expedia which is now the parent firm of Orbitz. Helloworld ceo Andrew Burnes said the strategic allilance had “not delivered the revenue streams initially envisaged by both parties, and had created too much conflict with Helloworld’s branded and associate members”.
“While helloworld.com.au, utilising the Orbitz technology, has been in one sense a success in that it attracted a lot of njew online customers to the portal, the financial investment by Helloworld Limited in its development is over $18 million to date, and between the ongoing losses of the dot com operation and the channel conflict with the online site carrying the same brand as our branded and associate members, we have decided to transition the site to a more agent-aligned portal,” Burnes said.
The move will also see the end of the current deal with Ready Rooms, with Burnes indicating that Helloworld would be entering into a new agreement with Expedia for access to global hotel content via the Expedia Affiliate Network which will be featured on the trade portal, alongside AOT product which will more than double the available rooms on the Ready Rooms site.
More information in today’s issue of Travel Daily.